Expedia Case Study 1 (Prototyping and Testing)

Expedia Case Study 1 (Prototyping and Testing)

Problem

Users cannot effectively see the pricing change on the review page when it occurs after they have chosen their flights results in negative emotions towards Expedia.

Context

Affluent travellers are important to the travel and flight booking industry; they are more likely to travel internationally, more likely to buy vacation packages, and pays more for vacations (eyefortravel.com). During the formative interview conducted on Expedia flight booking capabilities with participants who are middle class and above ($42000 annual income), and takes vacations revealed that pricing changes were not noticed by participants. When the participants found out after they have purchased the tickets, they displayed strong negative emotions towards Expedia. This is a further research and prototyping that seeks to improve the noticeability of the price change tags on Expedia’s review page.

Test Methodologies:

• Test format:

  • Preference test via survey: using Typeform survey that compares the control and the test interface using compare the between method. 33 participants were funnelled into two groups by the first letter or their last names to ensure validity of the results. Each group of participants only saw one of the two interfaces before answering the surveys. The funnelling is done using the first letter of their last names. Post-test surveys were conducted using SUPR-Q questionnaire samples.

  • Eye-tracking through Click Heatmap: Participants were randomly grouped into 2 sets, which were exposed to either the control or the test webpage. Participants needed to click on all the spots of the particular webpage they were exposed to help track their eyesight.

• Population: US population age 18 and over who earns $42000 and above.

• Samples: 33 participants whose earns $42000 and above

• Recruiting: Using Amazon mTurk panellists, SurveyCircle panellists, and snowball recruiting methods.

Results and Recommendations:

• Recommend using the test copy as a prototype to increase consumer awareness of the price change, usability, and confidence in purchase.

• Move forward with test copy to A/B testing with significantly more participants which this research was not able to due to resource constraint.

Detailed Results:

Preference Test Results:

• The TEST prototype webpage performed better than the control webpage in the preference test. Overall, informed users are more satisfied with the webpage than not informed.

• 87% of the users who were showed the TEST copy noticed something about the final price compare to the 61% of those who were showed the CONTROL copy.

• 47% of the users can remember the price change after been showed the TEST copy compare to the 29% of those who were showed the CONTROL copy.

• Discovering the price change actually increased users’ perception of Expedia’s Usability (4.17 vs. 4.1), confidence in purchase(3.92 vs. 3.81), ease of navigation (4.17 vs. 4.14), trustworthiness(3.92 vs. 3.9) while credibility remained unharmed (4 vs. 4).

Preference Test Script

Eye-tracking Click Heatmap Result:

• Users saw the price change slightly better in test than in control due to the price change being in the display vicinity of the final price.

(Participant Instructions: Pretend that you are booking some flights for yourself only. Below is the summary page after you have chosen your flights. Review this webpage as you normally would when you book flights. Please click to mark all the places which you have stopped and looked on the below webpage. Once you are done, please click “next” to continue.)

Citations:

• Sauro, Jeff. “Post-test surveys were conducted using SUPR-Q questionnaire samples.” Journal of Usability Studies. Vol. 10, Issue 2, February 2015, pp. 68-86

• https://www.eyefortravel.com/social-media-and-marketing/expedia-gets-creative-affluent-traveller